That Pesky Thing Called Obedience

Why is being obedient so hard sometimes?

It really shouldn't be hard, you know. Do what you're told to do. Period. Do what you know is right. Period. Yet how often are we guilty of doing the exact opposite?

To trace our heritage in disobedience you've got to go all the way back to the very beginning. To the very first people God created. Genesis 3 tells the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, a perfect paradise where they walked with God in the cool of the day. Yet despite the perfection, despite the daily presence of God, Adam and Eve disobeyed. They sinned.

And that, my friend, is exactly what disobedience is. Sin!

1 Samuel 15 truly spells out what disobedience looks like and what its consequences will be. God has given the order to destroy the Amalekites because of the way they treated the Israelites when God delivered his people from Egypt. Samuel tells Saul exactly what to do: kill everyone and everything. But Saul disobeys. He takes the king captive and allows his men to keep the best of the livestock. He even sets up a monument in his own honor. Talk about arrogance! God hates our disobedience. He told Samuel he was grieved that he'd made Saul king.

But guess what? Saul didn't even recognize his disobedience! He had to be told by Samuel that what he'd done was wrong! And even then, it took quite a bit of convincing before he conceded. But the damage was done. God removed Saul from his position and gave it to David, a man after God's own heart.

Does that sound like someone you know?

Or maybe you're the one living in disobedience?

You know what is right and yet you don't do it. But still, you claim to be doing what is right and good! I've "been there, done that." God has had to thump me more than a few times to get me to see that what I was doing was not what he'd told me to do.

Each and every day we need to check our lives for disobedience. When you find it, get rid of it! Stop doing whatever it is you're doing that you know is wrong. Even if that means major life changes have to happen. DO IT! It is far better to live in obedience to God than to live in sin with man!

And remember: disobedience to God is sin!

I'll leave you with Samuel's words about this:

"Does the Lord delight in burnt offering and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry." 1 Samuel 15:22-23

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